Ryoji Fukunaga boxer

Ryoji Fukunaga (Japanese: 福永亮次, Fukunaga Ryoji, born 30 August 1986) is a Japanese professional boxer. He is a one-time WBO super-flyweight title challenger and the former OPBF and WBO Asia-Pacific super–flyweight champion.Fukunaga worked as a carpenter after graduating from junior high school and took up boxing at the age of 25. He made his professional debut against Seita Mochizuki on 10 August 2013, at the Azalea Taisho in Osaka, Japan. Fukunaga lost the fight by majority decision, with scores of 37–39, 38-39 and 38-38. Fukunaga fought twice during the next two years, against Retsu Hosokawa on 15 December 2013 and Seita Shimamiya on 28 January 2018, winning both fights by knockout. After amassing a 2–1 record, Fukunaga was booked to face Yamato Kikuchi in the opening round of the 2015 East Japan "Rookie of the Year" super-flyweight tournament. He won the fight by a first-round knockout. Advancing to the quarterfinals, which were held on 15 July 2015, Fukunaga faced Daichi Yamamoto. He won the fight by a second-round knockout. Fukunaga faced Ryo Matsubara in the tournament semifinals on 25 September 2015. Matsubara stopped Fukunaga's tournament run, as he won the fight by a first-round technical knockout.Fukunaga returned to action seven months later, to participate in the 2016 "Rookie of the Year" super-flyweight tournament. Fukunaga was able to skip the opening round this time around, and was immediately booked to face Takuya Numasawa in the tournament quarterfinals. He won the fight by a first-round technical knockout. Fukunaga faced Rikiya Ono in the tournament semifinals on 4 October 2016, and won the fight by a fourth-round technical knockout. Fukunaga faced Yukito Tomori in the tournament finals, held on 13 November 2016. He was able to win the tournament this time around, as he stopped Tomori by a third-round knockout. This victory earned Fukunaga the right to face Kota Fujimoto on 23 December 2016, for the All Japan Rookie of the Year super-flyweight title. He won the fight by a fifth-round technical knockout.Fukunaga faced Yoshinobu Kakinaga on 1 April 2017, in the first eight-round bout of his career. He won the fight by a seventh-round technical knockout. Fukunaga won his next eight round bout as well, as stopped Patiphon Upanan in the second round on 13 September 2017. Fukunaga was booked to face Yuta Matsuo on 26 April 2018. Matsuo won the fight by split decision, with scores of 79–73, 77-75 and 77–76. Despite this loss, Fukunaga was scheduled to challenge Jakrawut Majungoen for the OPBF Silver super-flyweight title on 29 June 2018.Fukunaga was scheduled to challenge the reigning WBO Asia Pacific champion Froilan Saludar on 14 February 2020, at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, in the first twelve-round bout of his career. As Saludar was the more experienced fighter, who had faced a greater level of opposition in his career up to that point, Saludar came into the fight as a favorite. Despite this, Fukunaga won the fight by a seventh-round technical knockout. He first knocked Saludar down with a body strike, before forcing the referee to wave the fight off with a flurry of punches.